{"id":47,"date":"2024-02-29T20:06:51","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/?p=47"},"modified":"2024-02-29T20:09:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T20:09:18","slug":"random-youtubers-to-the-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/2024\/02\/29\/random-youtubers-to-the-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Random YouTubers –> To the Rescue!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the course of working on this Capstone Project, I have been tasked with completing 3 puzzles within our Scooby Doo themed escape room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: Our Progress Report #3 for the course<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had worked with Unreal Engine for work in a mostly static capacity.\u00a0 Modifying and changing landscapes to resemble specific environments, or even to run preexisting code.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: Screenshot of an Unreal Project taken from an Internal Work PPT Slide<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, the imposter syndrome was really setting in and getting started on implementing the first puzzle had me feeling paralyzed.\u00a0 The excitement for the project suddenly wasn\u2019t outweighing my ability to get my own code changes and implementations to do anything of\u2026 substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: https:\/\/skillstraining.medium.com\/what-is-imposter-syndrome-and-how-can-you-overcome-it-a4ddb3a5886<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My main breakthrough of the imposter syndrome barrier of this project was when I worked on (and eventually completed) the first puzzle for my floor.\u00a0 This puzzle involved picking up multiple items that allow the \u201cunlocking\u201d of a door.\u00a0 In our case it enabled the attic staircase to open.\u00a0 For now, I decided to use these pages as the items I would use to unlock the stairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: Our Scooby Doo Themed Unreal Engine Capstone Project<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully for various random YouTubers who are kind enough to share their wealth of knowledge, I was able to stumble my way through an adaptation of their code.\u00a0 The lifesavers of that week were YouTubers: \u201cMatt Aspland\u201d, \u201cGorka Games\u201d, and \u201chawaiifilmschool\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YouTube Channel Links: \u201cMatt Aspland\u201d (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MattAspland<\/a>), \u201cGorka Games\u201d (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@GorkaGames<\/a>), and \u201chawaiifilmschool\u201d (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@hawaiifilmschool<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Im4lJRNCVZA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, I found the Unreal Engine development series by \u201cMatt Aspland\u201d. In this particular video, he walked through how to implement a key & door system for doors in Unreal Engine. This helped me understand how to have a single particular item unlock a door.\u00a0 While this wasn\u2019t the end all be all for my puzzle, it helped me understand the simplicity of the problem, and helped me visualize the OOP aspects of these door and key \u201cobjects\u201d within Unreal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image & Video Source for Locked Door & Key System: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Bcle9sSS4Oo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with slightly more confidence, it was in the series of recommended videos that led me to the \u201cGorka Games\u201d walkthrough video.\u00a0 This is the one that really got me excited about the puzzle, and allowed me to implement this type of code into our project.\u00a0 It showed how to create invisible \u201ctrigger\u201d objects that allow events to happen \u2013 whether that be coming into proximity of a pick up item, or blocking a path for the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image & Video Source for Pickup Item Puzzle: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Im4lJRNCVZA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability to adapt this code into my project in a relatively straightforward manner, got me excited about other applications of these trigger box mechanisms within the game.\u00a0 This led me to create the triggers for not only the staircase to the attic (necessary for my puzzle), but also the relocking mechanism once in the attic.\u00a0\u00a0This is shown in the photo below, by a round ball that illustrates the center of a the transparent outlined box at the top of the stairs (as well as the 3 cake items behind it), representing the trigger box object in the viewport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: Our Scooby Doo Themed Unreal Engine Capstone Project<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After getting the stairs to intentionally open and close upon my coded triggers, I felt UNSTOPPABLE.\u00a0 I ended up staying up for hours lost in the excitement of implementing stand in door triggers to help with overall game flow for all floors.\u00a0 My overall goal was to create a user experience shown in the image below \u2013 in which informative text is displayed on the screen to the user to let them know why they couldn\u2019t proceed through the game.\u00a0 This felt like the last detail for this feature (current implementation seen below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: Our Scooby Doo Themed Unreal Engine Capstone Project<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, I set out for YouTube once again, leading me down another rabbit hole of videos until I found the perfect one that would work with the content and code base we were already using.\u00a0 The quick video by \u201chawaiifilmschool\u201d quickly taught me how to create text widgets that would be displayable on screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image & Video Source for Displaying Text on Screen: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TqUTK5-XqYY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These collective features made the project start to feel like it might turn into something fun and playable.\u00a0 This got me excited about the puzzles and how to refine and fine-tune them to be more fun (and less buggy).\u00a0 I was able to place the items in different rooms within the level, making them more fun to find.\u00a0 This also segwayed into a perfect opportunity to ensure that the user must complete all of the puzzles on the second floor before proceeding to the Attic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: Our Scooby Doo Themed Unreal Engine Capstone Project<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes all it takes to get past the seemingly impossible barrier is the first step. Oftentimes, that first step is best taken with help from others.\u00a0 I greatly credit the various YouTubers that provide the amazing wealth of Unreal Engine knowledge online for anyone to access, for free.\u00a0 I will forever be grateful to them for the breakthrough on my project!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source: \u200b\u200bhttps:\/\/imgflip.com\/i\/7dzaww<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peace out coders!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Kristy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the course of working on this Capstone Project, I have been tasked with completing 3 puzzles within our Scooby Doo themed escape room. Image Source: Our Progress Report #3 for the course I had worked with Unreal Engine for work in a mostly static capacity.\u00a0 Modifying and changing landscapes to resemble specific environments, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scriptedwaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}